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The Stringent Response Regulates Adaptation to Darkness In The stringent response regulates adaptation to darkness PNAS PLUS in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus Rachel D. Hooda, Sean A. Higginsa, Avi Flamholza, Robert J. Nicholsa, and David F. Savagea,b,c,1 aDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; bDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and cEnergy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 Edited by Robert Haselkorn, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and approved June 27, 2016 (received for review December 17, 2015) The cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus relies upon photosynthe- provided insight into regulatory strategies that persist in constant sis to drive metabolism and growth. During darkness, Synechococcus light, but few studies have addressed the mechanisms by which stops growing, derives energy from its glycogen stores, and greatly cells adapt to darkness, predictable or otherwise. decreases rates of macromolecular synthesis via unknown mechanisms. Nearly all aspects of cyanobacterial physiology are affected by Here, we show that the stringent response, a stress response path- a shift from light to dark: cells stop elongating and dividing, cease way whose genes are conserved across bacteria and plant plastids, DNA replication, and exhibit decreased rates of transcription and contributes to this dark adaptation. Levels of the stringent response translation (5–7). Proteins produced in the dark differ from those alarmone guanosine 3′-diphosphate 5′-diphosphate (ppGpp) rise produced in the light (8), and recent studies have identified genes after a shift from light to dark, indicating that darkness triggers the that are differentially expressed between light and dark (9, 10). same response in cyanobacteria as starvation in heterotrophic bacte- How the cell coordinates these transcriptional and translational ria. High levels of ppGpp are sufficient to stop growth and dramati- changes remains largely unknown. cally alter many aspects of cellular physiology, including levels of Not only does Synechococcus physiology change a great deal photosynthetic pigments and polyphosphate, DNA content, and the between light and dark, but its metabolism also shifts dramati- rate of translation. Cells unable to synthesize ppGpp display pro- cally. Photosynthetically active cells reduce carbon dioxide into nounced growth defects after exposure to darkness. The stringent carbohydrates, which they accumulate as glycogen. When light is response regulates expression of a number of genes in Synechococcus, no longer available, cells catabolize their glycogen stores through including ribosomal hibernation promoting factor (hpf), which causes respiration. Metabolism must be tightly controlled in the dark MICROBIOLOGY ribosomes to dimerize in the dark and may contribute to decreased because total energy supply is finite and must be rationed (5), translation. Although the metabolism of Synechococcus differentiates which raises the question of whether dark periods are analogous it from other model bacterial systems, the logic of the stringent re- to starvation for Synechococcus and whether bacterial stress re- sponse remains remarkably conserved, while at the same time having adapted to the unique stresses of the photosynthetic lifestyle. sponse mechanisms mediate adaptation to darkness. Here, we show that the stringent response—a stress response cyanobacteria | Synechococcus | stringent response | (p)ppGpp | pathway whose enzymes are conserved in nearly all bacteria, as well — hibernation promoting factor as plant plastids is involved in dark adaptation in Synechococcus. We find that this pathway is active in Synechococcus and that it exerts dramatic effects on cellular physiology. Furthermore, this he conversion of solar light energy to chemical energy through response is required for cells to adapt properly to darkness, as cells photosynthesis ultimately supports the majority of life on Earth. T lacking the stringent response display pronounced growth defects Light harvesting by photosynthetic antenna complexes and pho- in diurnal light/dark cycles and loss of viability after prolonged tosystems is directly tied to light availability, which can fluctuate greatly over the course of a single day (1). The growth and re- exposure to darkness. We investigate which genes are regulated production of photosynthetic organisms therefore depend upon their ability to capture light efficiently, and they have evolved Significance several mechanisms that allow them to adapt to changing light conditions (2). Cyanobacteria are an important group of photosynthetic bac- Cyanobacteria comprise a diverse bacterial phylum that oxygen- teria that rely upon light energy for growth but frequently must ated the atmosphere, gave rise to the plant chloroplast, and that adapt to darkness. Cells stop growing and decrease overall rates performs 10 to 25% of global photosynthesis today. Synechococcus of gene expression and protein synthesis in the dark, but the elongatus PCC 7942 (hereafter, Synechococcus) is a model cyano- molecular mechanisms behind these observations remain un- bacterium that relies exclusively upon photosynthesis and carbon known. We find that a widespread bacterial stress response, the assimilation to grow. Its obligate photoautotrophic lifestyle stringent response, helps cells conserve resources during darkness. makes Synechococcus a useful system in which to investigate the In the dark, cells produce higher levels of the stringent response ′ ′ coordination and regulation of these inherently essential meta- signaling molecule guanosine 3 -diphosphate 5 -diphosphate bolic processes. (ppGpp), thereby altering gene expression patterns and affecting Cyanobacteria frequently encounter transitions between light the protein synthesis machinery. These results help explain pre- and dark in their environment, and these transitions fall into two vious observations in the cyanobacterial literature and extend our distinct categories. One is due to the rising and setting of the sun, knowledge of how the same signaling pathway has been adapted which yields predictable transitions from light to dark and back to different bacterial lifestyles and metabolisms. to light again. Synechococcus has a circadian rhythm that antic- Author contributions: R.D.H., S.A.H., and D.F.S. designed research; R.D.H., S.A.H., and ipates the timing of dawn and dusk and regulates the expression R.J.N. performed research; R.D.H., S.A.H., and R.J.N. contributed new reagents/analytic of a majority of its genes in a time-dependent manner (3, 4). The tools; R.D.H., S.A.H., A.F., and D.F.S. analyzed data; and R.D.H. and D.F.S. wrote the paper. second type of light/dark transition is unpredictable and can The authors declare no conflict of interest. occur due to transient cloud cover or shade cast by other or- This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. ganisms or geological features, for example. These transitions 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected]. cannot be anticipated, and may require a rapid restructuring of This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. metabolism. Studies of circadian rhythm in Synechococcus have 1073/pnas.1524915113/-/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1524915113 PNAS | Published online August 2, 2016 | E4867–E4876 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 AB∼150 μM. We find, therefore, that ppGpp levels increase rap- idly in Synechococcus in response to darkness. 10 To artificially increase (p)ppGpp levels, we constructed a 20 Synechococcus strain that inducibly expresses a small (p)ppGpp synthetase from Bacillus subtilis, yjbM/SAS1. This gene has been 5 heterologously expressed in E. coli and resulted in high levels of + 10 (p)ppGpp (15). We refer to this strain as “ppGpp .” As expected, + the ppGpp strain had significantly higher ppGpp levels in the light 0 not detected than a control harboring an empty plasmid, as measured by HPLC 32 ppGpp peak area (AU) relative ppGpp peak area – 0 + -L and P-TLC (Fig. 1B and SI Appendix, Fig. S1 B D). Based on -D5 0 30 60 90 120 150 rel the crystal structure and mutational studies of the homologous control-L Time (minutes) ppGppcontrol-D5 Rel (p)ppGpp synthetase from Streptococcus equisimilus (16), we generated a point mutant, D72G, to abrogate the activity of the Fig. 1. ppGpp levels increase in the dark in Synechococcus and can be ge- B. subtilis synthetase. A recent crystal structure of yjbM/SAS1 netically manipulated. (A) Synechococcus cultures were shifted from the revealed that Asp72 coordinates a magnesium ion required for light (white background) to the dark (gray background) at 0 min and were catalytic activity (17). The D72G mutation did indeed inactivate harvested at the time points shown. Extracts were analyzed by anion ex- change HPLC (AU, arbitrary units). Peaks eluting at the same time as a ppGpp (p)ppGpp synthetic activity, restoring ppGpp levels to those of the empty plasmid control (SI Appendix, Fig. S1 C and D). We standard were integrated to determine relative ppGpp levels. (B) Analysis of + ppGpp levels from Synechococcus strains in the light (L) and the dark (D). refer to this strain as “ppGpp D72G.” Using these strains, we Cultures harvested in the light were induced with IPTG for 17 h (control, WT- can control (p)ppGpp synthesis in Synechococcus, allowing us to CmR). Cultures in the dark were harvested 5 min after the light-to-dark shift. investigate the
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